What German children played with in World War Two - the Nazi party sticker books

By DAVID WILKES

Last updated at 17:35 21 January 2008

During the austere 1930s, British children enjoyed the simple pleasure of collecting tea and cigarette cards of their sporting heroes.

But over in Germany, their counterparts were carefully gluing pictures of figures infinitely less innocent than the likes of the young Stanley Matthews into their prized albums.

One collection focused on Adolf Hitler, with its 204 cards chronicling the evil dictator's rise to power and pictures of the Führer in uniform with his Nazi henchmen, including his then deputy Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels.

The 133-page book, published in 1935, is one of a rare set of three produced by the Nazis and being auctioned this week.

The others are a 151-page history of the Nazi party, also featuring 204 collectors' cards, published in 1933, and a 97-page history of Germany in the post-First World War period ('Die Nachkriegszeit') featuring 252 cards, published in 1935.

The books were brought back to England by Allied soldiers after the end of the Second World War and are being sold by their relatives, who wish to remain anonymous, after spending decades gathering dust in the attic.

They give a chilling insight into the Nazi propaganda machine and conjure up a disturbing image of youngsters having fun swapping cards of the Nazi monsters and deriving entertainment from getting the latest card of Hitler to add to their collection - while all the time being unwittingly brainwashed by the fascist regime.

Yesterday historical documents expert Richard Westwood-Brookes of auctioneers Mullocks, said: "Children collected these cards and no doubt looked forward to the day when they would have a completed book to show to their friends and families.

"But meanwhile the Nazis storm troopers were going about their business, beating people up, crushing the freedoms of the people and planning the rounding up Jews for extermination as Hitler and his gang plotted world domination.

"The Nazi propaganda machine was such a total operation that it exploited every human activity - even the innocuous hobby of sticker collecting.

"Collecting cigarette and tea cards has been a pastime in this country for many decades. But whereas the subjects of these British cards was totally innocuous, such as sports stars, wild animals or Kings and Queens, behind these German versions was a very sinister intent - because they all carried a subliminal message.

"They are testament to how an evil genius such as Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, can turn the most innocent of pastimes into an important cog in the whole process of warfare and the crushing of freedom."

The lavish books contain large amounts of text and have fine bindings. The Hitler and Nazi Party histories feature black and white cards, while the post-war history set is in colour.

They have complete sets of cards, except for the Nazi party history which is missing five.

The post-war history book traces the history of Germany from 1918-1934. One of the great boosts to the Nazi rise to power was the awful years after the end of the 1914-18 war and historians say the intention of this book was that the card collectors should be reminded of that week after week as they were completing the album - and remember how Hitler had supposedly improved their quality of life.

The Nazi Party history collection includes cards depicting Nazi rallies and marching soldiers and aims to reinforce the message that they were doing a good job for the German people.

The books will go under the hammer at Mullock's auctioneers in Ludlow, Shropshire, on Thursday and are expected to fetch up to £100 each.

Another example of the Nazis' propaganda, a version of the game bagatelle named Bombers over England in which children as young as four were encouraged to blow up settlements by firing a spring-driven ball on to a board featuring a map of Britain and the tip of Northern Europe, was sold by the same auctioneers last year.